mikeh wrote: I had a look at the bowling figures for the Australians and of the 685 overs that were bowled in the series, the 4 main bowlers delivered 630 of them or 92%. Seems abnormally high to me. Compare this to the Indians who, due to injuries mind you had a lot more load spread through their squad and were fresher and more dangerous.
Green only bowled 44 overs in 4 tests, I thought he was underused even if he is on a managed return. Surely he could have bowled more than 11 overs per test.
Starc is interesting, his figures for the whole series don't look pretty. He took 11 wickets at 40.71 with a strike rate of 74 and Economy of 3.27 an over. However after the first two tests he had taken 8 wickets at about 20 which is pretty respectable. He really fell away in Sydney and Brisbane where I suspected that he was playing through injury on both occasions. The question then has to be asked, why was he playing? Surely there was a fit fresh bowler in the squad that could have taken his place.
Hazlewood took 17 wickets at 19.35, strike rate 51, Economy 2.27 RPO, you couldnt have asked for any more than that.
Cummins was even better, 21 wickets at 20.09, strike rate 46 Economy 2.6, the outstanding individual in the series without doubt.
The major disappointment for me in the series was Lyon. He took only 9 wickets at 70, Strike rate 124.7 and Economy 3.36 RPO. India played him as effectively as I have seen and often succeeded in hitting him out of the attack. This ramped up the pressure on the other 3 bowlers to produce and somewhat broke down the ability of this bowling unit to put sustained pressure on the opposition. The result was that they were pretty much out of petrol by the end of the series. Also the batting was extremely fragile during the 4 tests and never scored 400+, which then gives the bowlers more opportunity to dominate as they normally do in Australia.
I really can't see too many changes for the South African tour for a couple of reasons
1. There has been no Sheffield Shield cricket for players outside the squad to push their claims
2. Some of the guys we are looking at such as Starc and Lyon have proven test records and probably deserve a bit of leeway for a poor series.
I think the most poignant comment I heard yesterday after India's win was that they wanted it so much more than the Australians and somehow the Aussies need to rediscover that desire, ruthlessness and will to win that they seem to be badly lacking.
One more thought about the captaincy, I agree that Paine is not a great captain tactically but it is probably a bit unfair to compare him with Rahane who is a superb leader IMO and a lot of the credit for this triumph would be due to his calm supportive but inspiring management of his team. His field placings for various batsmen were well thought out and they often worked
Good post Mike.
Although I find it hard to understand how the Aussies fail to find that desire/ruthlessness you talk about highlighted above, if I were on as much $$$ as these blokes who are all on about $1m or more a year from their various comps they play in and CA contracts I dont think I would have much trouble finding desire, but maybe that is the point these guys are so well off they really have lost that hunger these days and maybe CA should look at going back to a retainer of $100/200k a year with INCENTIVES/ENDUCEMENTS for performance, we may then start to see a dramatic improvement in those non negotiables for mine!
One of many, many points of Paine's Captaincy was his refusal to give Labuschagne a decent go especially on Day 5 in Sydney & Brisbane.
There were some decent footmarks left by the quicks (from both teams) for him to aim at and possibly get a few to jump and turn markedly out of but no Paine kept bowling Lyon for no result.
Lets face it most world class batsmen would rather face an off spinner like Lyon who has no real tricks, no doosra, lack of an arm ball, rarely tossed them up he was bowling predominately darts, than a leg spinner who can turn the ball and can bowl a wrongun at least.
For all we know Marnus might have developed some other deliveries as well- flipper etc but we will never know as Paine would only give him an over just before the second new ball was due!
